Rawhide

by River Cow Orchestra

1 Embryology
2 Chromatophore
3 Carmine Cheeks
4 Undercover Pursuit
5 Fingerprints On A Dirty Glass
6 Trail Of Bright Feathers
7 Celebration Of The Wind

Brent Bowman: Keyboards, Woodwinds
Greg Field: Drums, Percussion, Poetics
Charles Rice Goff III: Winds, Percussion, Vocals, Toys, Noise
Michael LaGrega: Violin, Theremin
John Lomas: Guitar Synthesizer
Allan McGinty: Bass, Bass, And More Bass
E.E. Pointer: Trumpet, Vocals, Percussion

Engineered and mixed by Lynn Allred at LA Audio, Olathe, Kansas

All of the music presented here was improvised at the LA Audio recording studio on August 23rd, 2008. The "Rawhide" CDR album was assembled by Charles Rice Goff III and distributed by Taped Rugs Productions. Different configurations of these improvised recordings appear on the 2009 CDR album: "The Tyranny and Grace of Good Socks," assembled by Greg Field. Go to: www.myspace.com/rivercoworchestra for more information about this and other River Cow Orchestra projects.

Dolf Mulder of "Vital Weekly" (Netherlands) offered the following review of "Rawhide" in May of 2009:

"I played this one very often in the last few weeks. No problems in having this music filling our rooms like a perpetuum mobile. Listening to the River Cow Orchestra is enjoying the company of Brent Bowman (keyboards/sax), Greg Field (drums), C. Goff III (percussion, winds), Michael LaGrega (violin), John Lomas (guitar synthesizer), Allan McGinty (bass) and E.E. Pointer (trumpet). Only the name of Charles Goff III did ring a bell. He is a veteran of the independent music scene, running Taped Rugs Productions since the 80s. The orchestra is specialized in long and open psychedelic improvisations. Making clear reference to the electric 70s work of Miles Davis. Especially in pieces like 'Chromatophore' where trumpeter Pointer does some of the solowork, the ghost of Miles Davis is very near. Most improvisations breath a relaxing and laid-back atmosphere. The music is grooving, but not in a funky, jazzy way, except for the first part of the last track 'Celebration of the Wind'.

Surely this is not retromusic, reviving some pretended good old days. On the other hand, we are also not on the forefront of musical developments between these cows. But they do touch upon something. They create very open and wide structures and take time to develop things. This results in very captivating music that is never in a hurry and working very consequent to its goal. Their improvisations originate on stage or in the studio without much pretension. It's just there. They have at least one more CDR out, called ' Emerging'. But that is about all I know about their history. Kansas City, Missouri, is their hometown and it is here that they do most of their live concerts. It is especially the strange and typical drumming by Greg Field that prevent these improvisation from becoming something we have heard many times before. He doesn't swing or funk or rock, but spreads out non-spectacular but binding patterns that work."

A video produced by Goff entitled: "Pasteurized Pleasantries," features as its soundtrack the piece: "Fingerprints On A Dirty Glass" and is included in this archive.



Copyright 2008

Taped Rugs Productions
www.tapedrugs.com

River Cow Orchestra
www.myspace.com/rivercoworchestra


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